LONG BLOG

If there's one thing that really turns me off to certain games - without fail - is a bad tutorial. I don't even mean bad in the sense that it doesn't explain the mechanics properly, I mean bad like, I don't want to friggen know it's there.

Final Fantasy tutorials have this habit of being "in your face" and wasting hours of your time. I really like FF games; don't get me wrong, I've played them all to some extent. I haven't played through Final Fantasy XIII, though, only because the tutorial process is a cumbersome 20 hour commitment that I don't want to waste my life with. Why does Square do this?

They did something similar with Kingdom Hearts II as well. I started playing that game at least 4 times, getting no further along than 1 or 2 hours because of the weird beginning with Roxas tutorial mode. Recently, I noticed I had a lot of games backed up that I've been meaning to play, and I now actually have time to play them! So I took a little break from Batman to start Kingdom Hearts II again, and I am now a good seven and a half hours in. You should be proud!

I wish tutorials were usually more like the kind in Batman: Arkham Asylum. I like the way it just shows you what you need to do at the moment you need it, without stopping the flow of the game to give you a rundown. If more games had tutorials like this, my life would be so much easier. Of course, I understand that games as complex as FF types which involve a lot of customization, menus and so-forth would call for a more sophisticated tutorial; I just would prefer all of the FF games to have it, like say, Final Fantasy VIII which as I remember gave you the choice to skip the tutorial from the beginning of the thing. It's nice to have a choice. If I remember correctly, XII also made tutorials optional (beyond the very first 20 minutes or so in combat skill and whatever).

I don't think a lot of other games have such a stupid process. All the Zelda games I've played just have a quick little dialogue box telling you what to do when the moment arises. The Mario games I can remember just had signs posted with directions, if anything. Maybe this post is just a complaint about Square games and how they suck at tutorials.

LOOK WHO CAME:

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About Kristina Pinoone of us since 6:41 PM on 07.24.2010

My name is Kristina and I love my boyfriend <3.

Wait, that's not interesting yet. Second try. I'm female, I play games.

Shit, that's still not that interesting.

Let's see... I'm into photography and I'm an aspiring travel journalist. For now, I'm trying to get my name out there in other fields that I can write about..like movies and games. I consider myself more of a casual gamer, but I am an opinionated casual gamer. My favorite kinds of games are RPGs or puzzle games (like Final Fantasy serie, Monkey Island games (or Zakk and Wiki), Prince of Persia, you know...that kind of stuff). I also get really excited when I get to beta test. I got really excited when I beta tested Hello Kitty Online. Hey, don't look at me like that.

I now currently write news articles and such for Tomopop! Yaaaay.

I've recently participated in StarCraft II beta test and currently test FFXIV. Although, I'm not supposed to tell you that. I think I'll be OK, though.

I'll be blogging, giving you the casual girl gamer point of view whenever I have something to share. I might make a few posts here and there about how awesome my boyfriend is. Did I mention he's awesome? You might know him..he writes for you, you know. Yeah, that guy. Pedro <3

With a little bit of luck, (and a whole lot of blood and sweat) you'll see my name around more.

I listen to Pandora radio while I work. (work = editing photos, writing and my morning office drudgery)